Freshdesk vs Gainsight
An honest side-by-side comparison of two of our top customer support tools picks — pricing, strengths, weaknesses, and who each one is really for.
Freshdesk
Ranked #3 of 22 in this directory
Delight customers and empower your support team
Gainsight
Ranked #13 of 22 in this directory
The leading customer success platform
Our pick: Freshdesk. Our editors rank Freshdesk higher overall in Customer Support Tools — but Gainsight can be the better fit depending on your budget and use case below. How we review
Compare the details
| Freshdesk | Gainsight | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Freemium | Paid |
| Starting price | See website | See website |
| Category | Help Desk | Customer Success |
| Editorial rank | #3 of 22 | #13 of 22 |
Strengths
Freshdesk
- ✓Free plan available for small teams
- ✓More affordable than Zendesk
- ✓Good omnichannel capabilities
- ✓Easy to set up
Gainsight
- ✓Most powerful customer health scoring
- ✓Deep product and CRM data integration
- ✓Best-in-class for enterprise CSM teams
- ✓Comprehensive playbook automation
Watch out for
Freshdesk
- !Less powerful than Zendesk at enterprise scale
- !Reporting less sophisticated
- !Some features locked to higher tiers
Gainsight
- !Very expensive
- !Complex implementation
- !Overkill for small CS teams
Best use cases
Freshdesk
- →SMB customer support
- →Growing SaaS support teams
- →Budget-conscious enterprises
Gainsight
- →Enterprise SaaS customer success
- →Large CSM teams
- →High-touch customer management
About each tool
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a comprehensive help desk platform from Freshworks that offers ticketing, omnichannel support, automation, and AI-powered features at a more affordable price point than Zendesk. It's popular with SMBs and growing companies that need enterprise-grade features without enterprise pricing.
Gainsight
Gainsight is the category-defining customer success platform used by enterprise SaaS companies to manage customer health, reduce churn, and drive expansion revenue. It aggregates data across your CRM, product, and support tools to give CSMs a 360-degree view of each customer's health and engagement.
Still deciding? Browse all 22 options with honest pros, cons, and pricing.
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